People gather to protest a campaign event for Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on August 14 in New York City. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

By Arno Rosenfeld August 20, 2024

In their new book, Shane Burley and Ben Lorber earnestly insist it’s not just wrong for the political left to alienate a majority of Jews through their positions on Israel and antisemitism — it’s a doomed political strategy.

The question of how to address antisemitism on the political left has simmered for years, reaching a boiling point following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel. Some leftists celebrated the violence, while many more refused to condemn it in forceful terms or at all. And Hamas symbolism has become more visible during pro-Palestinian actions in recent months.

These trends have encouraged a rightward migration of some liberal Jews, who often describe the progressive movement’s focus on intersectionality and oppression as threats to Jewish safety. The Jewish establishment has responded by framing the problem as one of political extremes, with Jonathan Greenblatt, chief of the Anti-Defamation League, describing a “radical left” that is “the photo inverse of the extreme right.”

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Proponents of these arguments know that leftists rarely make the kind of openly antisemitic assertions that are common on the far -right, so they have sought to define the brand of anti-Zionism that is widespread on the left as a form of antisemitism.

These definitions don’t often stick. But they provide plenty of ammunition for Israel’s defenders to lob accusations at the country’s harshest critics, making it harder for some Jewish progressives to address what they believe to be actual antisemitism in their movement.

“The left remains frozen,” write Burley and Lorber. “Exasperated by the barrage of allegations, many activists bristle with defensiveness, refusing to take any discussion of antisemitism seriously, convinced the issue is entirely manufactured.”

Safety Through Solidarity is an effort to thaw this freeze, and the most comprehensive left-wing perspective on antisemitism I’ve come across.

An appeal to the left

The most remarkable section of the book is a defense of mainstream Jewish attachment toward Israel, which is often treated with derision by the left: “The majority of the world’s Jewish people currently support Zionism because they relate to Israel, quite understandably, as a life raft in a cruel, stormy ocean.”

This is an unusual statement coming from two leftists who remain active in a movement that can increasingly come to treat “Zionist” as a kind of slur. Lorber spent years as a campus organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace, one of the country’s leading anti-Zionist organizations, while Burley’s previous book was an anthology of antifascist essays.

They refer to Israel’s actions in the Gaza war as “genocide” throughout the book and offer no defense of Israel, beyond empathizing with Jews who have warm feelings toward the country.

Burley and Lorner’s attempt to pitch a progressive tent that both embraces anti-Zionism and welcomes Jews who aren’t themselves anti-Zionists is a delicate project, and they don’t confront all the potential pitfalls. They excuse a lack of “historical empathy” for Jews from Palestinians, for example, but condemn it among non-Palestinian activists, who often take cues from Palestinian leaders.

In another sense, though, their conclusions speak for themselves.

“We cannot dismiss broad swaths of any marginalized community as a priori enemies, unworthy of relationship and solidarity if they do not immediately agree to a radical critique that runs counter to their entire socialization,” they write. “Activists must meet people where they’re at, treat them like they are worth more than just their political agreement, and work to move them along issues that matter.”

I should add that Safety Through Solidarity is about much more than how antisemitism intersects with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and I hope you’ll join me this evening to discuss the book with Burley and Lorber. We’ll also cover their analysis of conspiratorial antisemitism on the far right — which takes up most of the book — and how they think their fellow leftists can better respond to antisemitism.

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